An answered prayer

I am the type of person who likes to have one, maybe two, responsibilities during the day, then I like to plan my agenda and get my own projects done. Last week was not one of those weeks! We were finishing up the spring soccer season, Lindsey and Ethan are starting into their T-ball/baseball seasons, Ethan is starting track, and then we had all the normal piano lessons, pack meeting, Young Women's, and Scott's bishopric-helping.

Well, Thursday morning came along. I had a list of errands that I wanted to get done in the morning before Lindsey got home from Kindergarten. By the time I had Adam, Garrett and myself ready, we ran out the door - I could already tell the time was going be really close! We hurried to the post office, jetted over to the credit union, and then raced through Macey's to get some groceries. I wasn't sure if we would have time, but I realized that Justin had left for the Hershey Track Meet that morning without a drink, so we bought him a cold Gatorade at Macey's and just tried to hurry, hurry through the store so that we could take it to him. (I thought I might feel bad if he keeled over from heat exhaustion at the high school track. :) )

The three of us left Macey's with just twenty minutes before Lindsey would be home. As we neared the high school, I saw cars and people everywhere! I think every fourth grader in the Spanish Fork area was there, along with a lot of their parents. In my head I was giving up much hope of being able to find him in the five minutes we had to look for him, but I pulled into the church parking lot north of the school's large property anyway, grabbed the stroller out of the trunk, and plopped Garrett inside and Adam up on top! It was already 11:00 and knowing that I could not find Justin on my own, I said a prayer asking Heavenly Father to help us find him before 11:04. I wanted Justin to be hydrated and know that I loved him, and I also wanted to be home before Lindsey. (I have found from experience that children are a little grumpy when their parents are late. :) )

As we walked briskly over to the track, I kept my eyes open for kids from Justin's elementary. We passed a hundred or so kids doing the long jump, but I recognized some moms and knew they were from a different elementary. We reached the track where there were even more fourth graders milling around, but I saw a father in our ward helping with a race. Just as I thought I might ask him if he had seen Justin, I looked over the racers he was supervising on the track only to see my cute little Justin mosying along with a friend towards me. Victory! I was so happy to see him, and I don't think I will ever forget the happy, surprised look he gave me! I gave him his Gatorade, patted his cheeks which had never been cuter, wished him good luck, then headed back to the van. I looked down at my watch just to see how we were doing on time, and almost started to cry when I saw that it was 11:04.

It was just such a little thing, but I am so grateful for the help that Heavenly Father gave Justin, Lindsey, and me. Justin got his drink and knew that I was thinking about him, and Lindsey got to come home to a house that was unlocked. :) Maybe even more important than those things though, is that when Lindsey, Justin and Ethan got home from school that day I got to tell them that story. I got to tell them that Heavenly Father loves us and answers our prayers.